A Narrow Escape
by Lady Knight Jewlz
Summary: Set after Alanna is Knighted.Jon has been captured by a group of bandits, and no one knows why he was captured or who ordered his capture. Although the upcomming Ball might answer a few of these questions...First Fanfic, plz r
1. Chapter 1: The Missing Prince

**A Narrow Escape**

**By Lady Knight Jules**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the few characters, such as Sir Matthew of Rose Park and other things you don't recognise and the plot. The rest of the characters and the setting and anything else you recognise belong to the wonderful Tamora Pierce.**

A/N: This is my first FanFic so please try to be nice when reviewing, but any constructive criticism will be accepted.

**Chapter 1: The Missing Prince**

It was a dark and cold morning as Alanna woke up to do her morning exercises. She hated the cold. She couldn't wait for winter to be over, when she would be able to get back to the grounds outside the castle where she had been cooped up all winter. Alanna also hated being cooped up inside the castle when all over the realm there was an adventure to be had, a battle to fight for her homeland as she was the only lady knight of her time or out riding in the royal forest on her beloved horse Moonlight with her friends Prince Jon, Sir Raoul, Sir Gary, Sir Alex, Douglass, Geoffrey and Sir Matthew of Rose Park.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door which startled Alanna so much that she lost her balance and concentration on what exercise she was doing and came crashing to the floor. When she finally got up and opened the door to find who had disturbed her morning exercises, she found a young servingmaid standing there with a very troubled look on her face.

"What's wrong," Alanna asked the girl.

"Lady Alanna, it's the Prince, he's missing," replied the serving maid.

"What do you mean, missing?" said Alanna who was very shocked to hear this.

"Missing, my lady, no one's seen him fer a couple o days now, since he went for a ride in the Royal Forest on the other side of the grounds," the maid answered, now looking more distraught than ever.

"The Queen has requested that you go to her chambers immediately," the maid answered and before Alanna could reply the maid was rushing back to the servants quarters before she burst into tears.

'_Poor Jon,' _Alanna thought. '_All alone in the forest by himself with no protection, although he is a full knight anything could happen to him since he is the prince, and some people wether they are stupid or smart would do anything to harm the prince to get exactly what the wanted from the King.'

* * *

_

Alanna quickly finished her morning exercises, and after dressing at a rapid rate, ran straight to the Queen's quarters of the castle. When she arrived at the Queen's quarters she also found Gary, Matthew, Raoul and a couple of other knights she didn't know, but suspected they were good friends of the King and Queen's and trusted by their Majesties had been called to the meeting as well to discuss Jon's disappearance.

"Sorry I'm late, but I came as quick as I could after I heard," stammered Alanna whilst gasping for air.

"Has there been any news on Jon's whereabouts?" she enquired once she had sat down and regained her breath.

All the knights shook their heads and Queen Lianne looked like she was about to cry.

"Not as far as we know," said King Roald, who was now standing behind his wife.

"Sir Matthew, how are the King's Own doing in their search?" Roald enquired.

"Not very well Your Majesty, we have found tracks of a horse that look like they belong to Jon's horse Darkness, about halfway out of the forest, but after that nothing."

"The person or people who took Jon were very careful at covering their tracks and obviously don't want to be found," Matthew told the King.

After hearing this news Queen Lianne was now in such a distraught state that she was crying, her only son and heir to the throne of Tortall had been kidnapped, with no sight of him anywhere and had to excuse herself from the meeting.

"Don't worry, we'll find Jon," said Alanna, trying to comfort the Queen before she left the room.

* * *

After more discussion with Roald about the circumstances surrounding Jon's disappearance, all the knights and Alanna went down to the stables where they found Stefan, the Palaces hostler already saddling their horses for them. 

"We best be quick in finding Jon, as I don't know how long the Queen will be able to survive with the knowledge that her son is missing, and how sick she has been lately, since she never fully recovered from that bout of Sweating Sickness she had," said Gary in a tone that was more commanding than a statement.

"I agree, with Gary, the Queen has been quite sick and I think the best thing for her will be to find Jon as soon as possible and bring him home, alive and well." Alanna stated and with that the group all set out for the Royal Forest.

* * *

The group had been riding for hours when it started getting dark. 

"I think we should set up camp here before it gets to dark," Raoul suggested, and everyone nodded in agreement.

The group spent the most part of the night talking about previous encounters and battles with bandits and how they were going to rescue Jon.

The next morning the group rode on further into the Royal Forest. They had been only riding for a few hours when one of the knights Alanna didn't know very well, spotted a campsite that looked like it belonged to a group of bandits.

"Jon might be in there," suggested the knight, whose name Alanna later found out to be was Sir Kieran of Stony Mountain.

The whole group turned in their saddles to see where Sir Kieran was pointing to, and to their shock, they saw an outline of a figure that was bound and gagged sitting on the floor in the tent.

Quietly the knights dismounted from their horses, tied them to a few trees so they could graze, and then the group crept up to the tent. Sure enough Kieran was right, and there was Jon alive and well with the exception of a few cuts and bruises, being held captive by a group of about 10 bandits.

Suddenly while the knights were attempting to rescue Jon, the bandits came into the tent to find their captive gone. They ran as fast as they could and managed to cut the knights off before they could reach their horses. The bandits advanced on the small group of knights with their swords drawn. The battle raged for what seemed like hours with each of the knights injuring the bandits and in turn the bandits getting a few lucky shots at the knights as their main purpose was to protect Jon at all costs. The battle finally ended when Alanna killed the bandit leader with a swift blow to the head with her sword. The group of knights narrowly escaped alive from the battle.

When the rest of the bandits finally gave up in their quest and ran, the group remounted their horses and started making the long and arduous ride home.

* * *

Jon, Alanna, Raoul, Gary, Matthew, Kieran, and the other knights arrived back at the castle a day later than was expected, as they decided to set up camp in the forest to recover from the battle. When they arrived at the castle they were greeted with a joyous applause from every noble at court as well as the King and Queen, when they entered the main hall in the palace. The Queen was so ecstatic about the return of her beloved son, that with the help of a few other nobles and servingmen and women she organised a great banquet to be held in the banquet hall for all the nobles at court in celebration for the efforts of Alanna and her friends and the return of the Prince. 

Later that evening Alanna found Jon sitting alone in a corner looking out into the grounds of the Palace.

"I'm glad that your back now, safe and well," Alanna said with a joyous expression.

Before Jon replied he kissed Alanna and she returned the kiss, not sure if it was the right thing to do.

"It's good to be back Alanna," he replied and the two of them spent the rest of the evening discussing what ever came to mind.


	2. Chapter 2: Surprises

**A Narrow Escape**

**By Lady Knight Jules**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except the few characters, such as Sir Matthew of Rose Park and other things and people you don't recognise and the plot. The rest of the characters and the setting and anything else you recognise belong to the wonderful Tamora Pierce.**

**Chapter 2: Surprises.**

A/N:_ The story is set after Alanna has been Knighted so don't worry if you read about Jon kissing Alanna in parts of the story because everyone knows that she is a GIRL. Also Thom and Faithful are still alive and Roger is still dead, for now…… Anyways on with the story; hope you like it and please, please, please review my story if you read it!_

_P.S sorry about the lateness of the update, I've had heaps of stuff on, school has now gone back so that means more homework and less time to write FanFic and I also had a massive case of writers block. Also the character known as 'Kieran of Stony Mountain' will now be known as 'Aaron of Stony Mountain', because I got sick of the other name and needed to change it._

* * *

Alanna awoke bright and early the next morning as she always did to do her morning exercises, although this morning there was something big on her mind and she didn't know what to do about it.

The question on her mind was, who had instructed the bandits to capture Jon and why, when it was so close to Midwinter.

She finished her morning exercises and went down to the Mess Hall for breakfast, hoping she would run into Jon so she could discuss her queries with him. Unfortunately Alanna couldn't find him, so after she had finished her breakfast, she went in search of Raoul, Gary, Geoffrey, or Douglass to see if they had seen him.

She found Gary in the library looking over some old documents he needed for some research he was conducting.

"Hey Gary, have you seen Jon at all today?" Alanna asked.

"Sorry Alanna, I haven't seen him all day, he might be down at the Dancing Dove with George," Gary suggested.

"Thanks anyway, I'll go down to the Dove after I've finished some practice sparing on the practice courts," Alanna said and with that she went to her rooms to get changed into something more comfortable to practice in.

* * *

Alanna wondered down to the practice courts at a casual pace. When she arrived she noticed that Sir Kieran was warming up to do some sparing but he had no opponent.

"Do you mind if I spar against you?" Alanna questioned.

The knight shrugged and the said "Yeah okay, why not." Not knowing what he had just gotten himself into, sparing a lady that is, he warmed up faster so he could get it over with.

After the two bowed to each other and started circling as it was customary to do when sparing an opponent, Aaron didn't know what to expect, and let Alanna get the first blow, which he later regretted as he learned quite quickly that she was a very talented fighter and was also very fast.

Blow after blow and block after block, each fighter managed to block the others attack and counter with their own. The bout had brought some curious nobles and other knights out to watch and after a while nearly everyone at court was watching Alanna and Aaron in their sparing practice. The practice session went on for another 20 minutes and was then ended when Alanna did a sneaky, but legal move which ended with Aaron on the ground with his hands held behind his back by Alanna. Everyone in the crowd applauded as Alanna helped Aaron to his feet. They both bowed to each other and then started warming down.

"Wow, I have never met a girl who can fight like that," Aaron said with a sound of awe in his voice.

"Well after years of training to become a knight and some training from the Shang Dragon, which I was able to have a couple of months after I was knighted, I have become used to the art and am always improving my technique, so you could say I am a special type of girl," Alanna replied almost laughing at the thought that she was special.

"Yeah," Aaron said still awestruck.

Alanna walked back up to the Palace discussing fighting tactics withAaron before she went to the Dove in search of Jon.

* * *

When Alanna arrived back at her rooms, she found a great surprise waiting for her. She was so surprised that she almost fell over at the sight of it, considering it generally takes a lot to surprise her in any way. There sitting on her bed waiting for her, was her beloved twin brother Thom.

"Thom, when did you get here?" Alanna asked still shocked to see her brother, as she hadn't seen him in a few years since she was knighted.

"I arrived about an hour after the noon bell." Thom replied.

"Why didn't anyone come and tell me that you had arrived?" Alanna queried, sort of angry that no one had bothered to let her know that her twin was at the Palace.

"That's because I told them not to, because I wanted to surprise my sister in the biggest way possible." Thom answered with a cheeky look in his eyes and a grin.

"You rat bag, you ohh……., I can't stay angry at you." Alanna said looking at her brother who still had that cheeky look on his face.

"We have heaps to catch up on." Alanna told her twin.

"Yes we do indeed, is now a good time to talk?" Thom asked.

"Umm not really, as I was about to go down to the Dancing Dove to find Jon." Alanna said, and her twin looked at her pleadingly.

"Oh, ok." Thom replied.

"Umm, would you like to ride with me down to Corus and then we can talk along the way?" Alanna asked her twin.

"That would be great, although there is one small problem." Thom replied looking slightly embarrassed.

"And what problem would that be my dear brother?" Alanna asked although she could guess what his answer would be as he was one of the most powerful mages in all of Tortall and generally didn't use horses to get around.

"That I don't have a horse to ride." Thom answered still looking rather embarrassed.

"Well that's easy fixed; we'll just go down to the stables and ask Stephan if you can borrow one of the Palace horses." Alanna told her twin who was not looking so embarrassed anymore.

"That would be great. Are you sure its okay to borrow the Palace horses?" Thom asked.

"Yes I'm sure, and besides they need a bit of a work out anyway, most of them have been in the stables for a while due to the season." Alanna said, and with that the two copper-headed twins walked down to the stables together.

* * *

The two twins arrived at the Dancing Dove just before nightfall, and to their relief were welcomed by a stable boy who took their horses to the stables for them, so that they could go inside and see George straight away.

When inside Alanna introduced Thom to most of her friends at the Dove and to her great relief found George instantly.

"'Lanna, what can I do fer ye today?" George enquired in a slightly drunken manner.

"I was just wondering if you have seen Jon at all." Alanna asked, not knowing if she was going to get a straight answer out of him considering the drunken state he was in.

"Yer he's been here mos' o the day talkin' to Rispah and Matt for most o the time, and the rest of it jus' relaxin' after what he's been through," said George who was now even more intoxicated than when he first spoke to her.

"Oh okay then, do you know where he is now?" Alanna queried, still not sure if she was going to get the answer she wanted.

"Yer he's ova in the corner talkin' to Matt," George replied, and with that he turned and started talking to some other Rouges that were at the Dove.

Alanna shrugged and walked over to where George said Jon and Matt were sitting. Sure enough George was right, and sitting in the corner with Rispah and Matt was Jon, looking quite calm and deep in conversation.

"Jon, can I talk to you?", "I've been looking for you all day," Alanna said now a bit calmer that she had found Jon at last.

"Yes and what may I ask do you want to talk to me about that it couldn't wait until I returned to the Palace later this evening?" Jon queried, seeing that Alanna wasn't happy that no one had told her where Jon had been all day.

"It's about your capture," Alanna started slowly not sure if she should continue in the presence of Rispah.

"Go on Alanna, Rispah knows all about what happened and has even said that she and the some of the Rouge Court including George will help in the investigation of who and why they captured me," Jon said seeing the look on Alanna's face.

"It's just that it has been puzzling me all day as to who would instruct someone to kidnap you, although I have a pretty good idea of the reason why they would be bothered to capture you." Alanna said.

"Hmm, it has been something of a mystery so far as to whom, but as for why I have also had a few ideas on the matter," replied Jon in a tone that sounded like he had also been thinking about the matter for some time.

"Yes I thought you would have." Alanna replied.

"I think it would be best if we found somewhere more private to talk about the situation in more depth, because there is all possibility that there is a spy here that works for the people who captured you Jon, and I wouldn't like to see what happened if they found out you were looking for them," Matthew suggested.

"I agree," Jon said.

"Yes that would be better and anyway I have to introduce you all to my brother Thom and the only way I am going to be able to find him is if we are going to go back to the Palace." Alanna said as she quickly scanned the room for her twin.

The other two nodded their agreement and Alanna went in search of Thom.

Alanna found Thom half drunk in a corner talking to some Rogues and playing a game of cards of which he was losing badly.

"Thom, were going back to the Palace now, so we can discuss some matters and so I can introduce you to some friends of mine." Alanna told her twin who was still intent on the poker game he was playing.

"Yer ookayy, I'll be wif ya in a moment." Thom said, his speech slightly slurred.

"Well you'd better hurry up as we are leaving now." Alanna said in a tone that was slightly more commanding then she would have liked to use when talking to her brother.

"Ookay, ookayy I'm comin' now, I was losing anyway," Thom said his speech more slurred than five minutes ago, and with that Thom said farewell to the Rouges and promised them that next time he was in the city they would play again.

Thom found Alanna waiting by the door with two people he didn't know.

"Alanna, who are these people with you?" Thom enquired still groggy from the amounts of beer he had had while playing cards.

"These people my dear brother are some very good friends of mine." Alanna told her twin.

"The tall one on my left with the brown hair and eyes is Sir Matthew of Rose Park and the tall one on my right with the black hair and sapphire blue eyes is the Crown Prince of Tortall and my former Knight Master Jonathan of Contè" Alanna said with a huge smile on her face at seeing her brothers reaction when she mentioned Jon.

Thom stood is shock and awe for a few minutes before shacking each mans hand and introducing himself to them as Alanna's twin brother Thom.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review as it makes my day to read the reviews you guys leave.**


	3. Authors Note

Authors Note:

Hey to all those who read my story. You are probably thinking by now that I have forgotten about it, but don't worry I haven't, I've just got a large case of writers block. Also school has gone back and I have a lot of things going on this term, there's school production, music and dance night and lots of projects and homework. I've also gotta get my life in order with friends and going out places, as well as my tae kwon do grading which is coming up soon. (YAY 1 step closer to being a black belt). So don't worry I haven't forgotten about the story it will just take me a while to update it cause I have no spare time at the moment and writers block, and the story isn't even close to being finished, so I'm not going to forget about it cause I know where I want it to go I just don't know how its going to get there, so any ideas are welcomed.

Until next time, or when I eventually update, thankyou to all those who read my story and for your reviews. For those who do read my story and don't leave reviews it would be much appreciated if you did because it tells me whether you guys like it or not an whether I should continue.

Lady Knight Jules :) :) :)


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